


Saviors of the World: Where are they now?

by ang3lba3, Mellomailbox



Series: Baby Dragons and other founders of Republic City [7]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alcohol, Blind Bandit Toph, F/F, F/M, Fire Lord Zuko, Humor, M/M, Polyamory, Post-Finale, Republic City, Truth or Dare, adult gaang, ironically only toph and zuko kiss and theyre not even a pairing, kidnap zuko for fun adventures, public urination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:48:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24105433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ang3lba3/pseuds/ang3lba3, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mellomailbox/pseuds/Mellomailbox
Summary: Wherein: Zuko is kidnapped for his own good, the Gaang minus Aang get extremely drunk, and Aang's statue is paid all due respect.---“This is very undignified,” Zuko says. It’s also difficult to breathe, the burlap course and heavy and hot where it’s rubbing against his mouth and nose. “Will you at least take the bag off?”“He’s handling this better than I anticipated,” Katara remarks, and it has to be her that gently pats at his rear. He kicks out, missing.“It’s the lack of choice, relaxes him,” Toph says casually. “Bottom.”
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong/Katara, Toph Beifong/Sokka
Series: Baby Dragons and other founders of Republic City [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1721398
Comments: 58
Kudos: 484





	Saviors of the World: Where are they now?

Considering the number of years he’s been associated with the Avatar and his gang, you’d think Zuko would have learned to be suspicious a lot sooner when they start doing suspicious things. 

For instance; Sokka _always_ greets Zuko when he travels to Republic City for politics. Unless he’s already with Zuko, in which case it’s Aang or Toph. 

No matter what, _someone_ greets him from the original clown parade. 

Katara’s the only exception from that group. She’s the one who greets him today, ringmaster’s sardonic smile in place, and elegantly waves him along. Perhaps it’s the long journey, or the distraction of papers, or years of relative peace. Whatever the reason, Zuko is not suspicious. 

“Welcome to Republic City, Firelord Zuko,” she says with a gracious little head nod. As the daughter of the Southern Water Tribe’s Chief, and in neutral territory, it’s more than she owes him. A genuine sign of respect that wasn’t easy to earn.

“Pleased to be here,” he answers honestly, brow quirked in amusement at their formal interaction. He’s traveled with his usual advisors, and so the comfortable way that he interacts with the Avatar’s group is an old scandal. 

Well, besides the way he acts around Sokka. And Aang. And Toph. But there’s a _reason_ they’re the clown parade, and Katara is the Ringmaster. 

“I’ll show you to your lodgings,” she says. Zuko can practically hear Advisor Himura thinking _May I show you to your lodgings, Honorable Fire Lord?_ Oh. Oh no, _Agni_ , he’s muttering it aloud back there.

“We’re grateful for your time,” Zuko says, enunciating clearly. “It’s very generous of you to take time away from your duties to greet us.” 

“Which duties? The ones where I lead the Southern Water Tribe, the ones where I rescue a dying people from extinction? Or perhaps my work with the council of Republic City? Oh, my, I almost forgot my _Master Waterbending_ school for women.” Her eyes are twinkling, clearly amused by Zuko’s instigation. 

“Yes, those ones. Also, keeping Aang from sticking spoons in light sockets.”

“It’s nothing, for an old _friend,”_ Katara says. Zuko can hear Himura grinding his teeth.

“Old friend indeed,” Zuko agrees, allowing Katara to take his arm familiarly. He makes sure not to touch the spot under his left temple, where he found his first white hair last week. She probably sees it anyways. 

“You’re barely thirty,” she whispers, as if reading his mind. 

“I have no idea what you could possibly be remarking on,” Zuko says, voice tightening into a more formal version of his normal accent. _Yep. Casual._

Katara laughs openly, loud and sharp, head thrown back. “Oh, tonight is going to be _fun._ ”

This is where Zuko should have started to feel suspicious. 

Instead, he almost trips, and then spends so much time trying to look like someone who would never do that that he completely misses it.

It’s a bit harder to miss the kidnapping.

***

“The only reason I’m not lighting you up right now is because I know it’s you, Sokka,” Zuko says from beneath the burlap sack that’s covered his head. His hands are bound behind him, ankles as well, and he’s being carried over a familiar, muscled shoulder. 

“Who’s Sokka. I’m— I’m Meaty Hunk,” Sokka says in a deep voice.

“Meathead,” Toph mutters in her normal voice. 

“To— _Tough!_ ”Sokka says.

“This is very undignified,” Zuko says. It’s also difficult to breathe, the burlap course and heavy and hot where it’s rubbing against his mouth and nose. “Will you at least take the bag off?” 

“He’s handling this better than I anticipated,” Katara remarks, and it has to be her that gently pats at his rear. He kicks out, missing. 

“It’s the lack of choice, relaxes him,” Toph says casually. “Bottom.”

“All _right_!” Zuko yells, finally losing his carefully cultivated calm. He breathes out through his nose, lighting the sack in a controlled blaze that eats it away without so much as touching his skin and hair. 

“Would you feel better if I choked you a little?” Toph calls, skipping backwards and laughing.

“No one chokes Zuko!” Sokka says.

“Well,” Katara hums.

“How about I light anyone on fire who talks about sex,” Zuko suggests. 

Toph cackles. “Who said anything about _sex,_ sugartits?” 

“Platonic punching is the new thing in some parts of the City,” Katara says supportively. 

“Yeah, it’s not a sadomasochistic sex club then, it’s roughhousing,” Toph agrees. “Different legal codes for noise complaints.”

“Sokka,” Zuko mutters, squirming a little to see if his grip has slackened. It tightens, and he reminds himself, _no sex thoughts._ “Put me down. I haven’t even properly greeted you yet.” 

“I think I want to avoid that?” Sokka says warily. “That was a threat, right, Katara?”

“Oh, Zuko doesn’t threaten me,” Katara says. “I can’t even imagine.”

“ _Sokka,_ ” Zuko sing-songs, “Put me _down_ and I will go wherever you are taking me willingly, because we are _friends_ and I trust you.” 

“His heart rate’s steady,” Toph reports. “Yet murderous, somehow.”

“Hmmm,” Sokka says, and doesn’t put Zuko down. “This is sorta fun though? Anyone wanna paint a mustache on him while we’ve got him tied up?”

Drastic measures are called for. 

Zuko shoves both his hands down the back of Sokka’s pants.

“AIEEEEEE,” Sokka screams, and starts trotting away like a horse that’s had it’s rump smacked. It doesn’t do squat to get him away from Zuko’s hands where they’re squeezing him, seeing as he’s the one _holding him in place._

“So help me Agni I will finger you right here and now, Sokka,” Zuko threatens, trying to wiggle a finger at his crack. His cheeks are moving a bit too rapidly for the threat to be carried out, but Zuko’s hoping that won’t matter. Time for a lie. “I was eating _jalapeno poppers_ when you grabbed me, Sokka!”

Sokka’s propositioned Zuko when he’s been eating fire flakes more than one time, and immediately drops him and pulls at the band of his pants. Both hands are protectively covering his ass. 

“HOW COULD YOU!” he wails. “OUR LOVE, MALIGNED, BETRAYED!”

“You kidnapped me!” Zuko snaps, and shakes his bound wrists at Sokka.

“He wasn’t eating anything, actually,” Toph says, looking disappointed in both of them. 

“We’re almost there anyways,” Katara sighs, dismissing the dramatics in favor of snapping Zuko’s binds with a delicate ice dagger. She helps him brush off the dirt as he scowls at them, hair loose from his topknot and hanging over his face. 

“Almost _where_ ,” Zuko snaps. He falls into step with the group.

“To your best friend!” Toph says cheerfully. “And here… he… is!”

Appa rounds the corner just as they make it, tongue headed directly for Zuko before he can do anything about it.

“Gods above,” he groans, long resigned to his fate and opening his arms for Appa’s slobbery hello. Once he’s well and covered, he keeps his arms open and turns to Sokka. 

“That’s disgusting,” Sokka says appreciatively. 

“I never got to say hello properly,” Zuko says sweetly.

“Ha,” Sokka laughs, skipping nervously backwards. “Did we tell you that I’m allergic to sky bison? Cause I’m so allergic to them, I swell all up and--”

“We all sacrifice for love,” Zuko says darkly, then bullrushes him, saliva spraying from his body as he sprints.

Toph sticks a foot out and trips Sokka on it. He goes flailing, about to fall backwards when Zuko reaches him and grips the front of his tunic, pulling him forward and rubbing his slimy cheek against Sokka’s beard. He gets their bodies nice and close too, one arm a vice around Sokka’s back so that he can’t escape. 

“Aaaaahhhh!” Sokka says. 

***

They _actually_ make it to Toph’s apartment. It’s not her official one as an ambassador to the Avatar, but her personal one for her ‘real career’, also known as black market dealings. Once an underground ring fighter, always an underground ring fighter. 

They’d thought about asking her to help out with the police force for all of five minutes before they realized she had a much more valuable place: pointing out the loopholes in the laws by diving headfirst through them.

“Why do you have my clothes,” Zuko asks, not really wanting an answer. Toph is still an enigma that he’s not sure he wants to solve. 

“Only the best for Water Tribe captives,” Katara says. 

“Yeah, did you even _give us_ clothes when you held us captive?” Sokka muses. “We’re so much better at this than you.”

For a moment Zuko’s offended, opening his mouth and pointing angrily at them, before the reality of what they’re saying settles. Also, a pointed arch of Katara’s eyebrow. He lowers his finger, cowed. 

“It’s okay Zuko,” Toph says. “I still think you’re good at being evil. In fact, I have a really good investment opportunity for an evil—” 

“Stop trying to do essential oils!” Katara yells. “They are NOT medicine!”

“Your pyramid schemes are never going to work!” Sokka says. 

“Uh, says the guy who can’t even _build a pyramid,”_ Toph says.

“I FELL FOR IT ONE TIME,” Sokka shouts, directly in her face. “I TRUSTED YOU! I THOUGHT IT WAS AN _INVESTMENT TO THE ARTS.”_

“Why would you trust Toph?” Zuko asks.

“I asked him during sex,” Toph says.

Katara makes a face. “Can we not talk about sex with Sokka tonight?” 

“Okay,” Toph says easily, and sidles over to Katara. “I’d much rather talk about you and _me,_ sugar queen.” 

“Oh, well, in that case,” she says, and bends to meet Toph halfway where she’s standing on her toes with a comedic smooth face. 

“STOP KISSING PEOPLE I KISSED FIRST!” Sokka yells. “ARE DIBS NOTHING?”

Zuko heads for a set of glass faced cabinets, which would be an odd choice for _Toph Beifong’s_ house, except that they’re to display the staggering amount of liquor as soon as you walk in. 

“This is a trap,” he decides, opening one of the doors and reaching for a bottle of fine Fire Nation wine. 

“That one’s poisoned,” Toph says.

He puts it down.

“How are you guys still so gullible?” Toph asks.

He picks it back up.

“NO SERIOUSLY ZUKO DON’T!” she yells.

Zuko opens it. Katara grabs it from his hand, smells it, squints at it, and then says, “I wouldn’t drink that if I were you.”

“It’s… actually poison?” Zuko asks.

“No,” Katara says, and then tips it straight into her mouth. “It’s high shelf.”

Toph and Sokka laugh at him, because they’re traitors who actually want him to fail in all of his desires and endeavors to be happy, and he grumpily grabs an identical bottle and tips it back. 

“NO THAT WAS THE POISONED ONE,” Toph yells. 

“I don’t believe you,” Zuko says flatly. He drinks again, just to prove his point.

“Katara, he needs to throw up, like, right now.” Toph stomps, knocking the bottle out of his hand and splattering it to the floor.

“Oh, shit,” Katara says. “Uh.”

***

“So what’s the reason for this?” Zuko asks, gesturing to them all sprawled out in Toph’s apartment. He’s feeling fine, since Katara had given him a full-body heal after waterbending the poison out of him. It went about how one expects that sort of waterbending to go, and he feels they’re all closer for it. 

It’s that, or he steps into a volcano to escape his humiliation. 

“You’ve been stressed,” Sokka says, and shrugs. “Too much stress will make a firebender explode, it’s science.”

“Who told you about that?” Zuko asks. 

“It’s _actual science?!”_ Sokka asks.

“No!” Zuko lies. “Ha. Ha. I got you. With...words.”

Sokka narrows his eyes at him, about to push the matter, but Toph’s probably Zuko’s only best friend because she places a bottle in Sokka’s hand and physically shoves it between his lips. 

“Where’s your kid, anyways?” Zuko asks her. 

“Being sat on,” Toph says. “Appa’s got it handled.” 

Zuko doesn’t really know what to say to that. 

“And Aang,” Katara says. 

“That’s not as reassuring as I wanted it to be,” Zuko mutters. 

“Which is why I asked Appa to help out,” Toph says, pointing her bottle in their direction. 

“It was good being an Uncle while it lasted,” Sokka says mournfully. “A double Uncle. A Duncle.”

“Aang is _not_ that irresponsible,” Katara says, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re being so dramatic.”

“Is it dramatic to worry about the wellbeing of children?” Zuko asks. 

“What are you, my grandma?” Toph asks. 

“I’ll have you know that I funded two children’s museums this year,” Zuko says.

“Grandma,” Toph says.

“At least I didn’t fund the _arts,”_ Zuko snaps.

“Hey! I’m on your side!” Sokka says. “Aang’s like twelve years old, he shouldn’t be left alone with babies!”

“He saved the world!” Katara shrieks, alcohol sloshing dangerously out of her glass and then eerily right back into it. 

“Debatable,” Toph says, and takes a swig of her own bottle. It’s unlabeled, and the glass is the same pale green as her eyes. Zuko can smell it from across the room. 

“It’s sad how you have to act like you’re a hundred just to make up for all the fun we’re having,” she adds, always one to push Katara’s buttons when given the opportunity. “What’s it like?”

Katara flushes, either from the alcohol or anger or both. “Oh yeah? Well— well— ZUKO’S HAIR IS TURNING WHITE!” Katara yells, pointing.

“AANG IS _BALDING,”_ Zuko yells back impulsively.

“HE SHAVES!”

“That’s what he tells _you,_ ” Zuko spits at her.

“When did this turn into dunk on Katara night?” Sokka asks. “I love dunk on Katara night! Did you know that she wet the bed--” 

“We are playing Truth or Dare,” Katara says, stomping to the center of the room and pointing at them all. “Or something with _rules_ , and we will _enjoy ourselves like a family.”_

“We have a lot of sex for a family,” Toph mutters into her glass. 

“Modern family,” Zuko stage whispers.

Katara takes Toph’s bottle, tips the rest back, and pinches her face up while stomping in place as the burn hits her. After it’s passed and she’s wiping tears from the corners of her eyes she sets the bottle down and spins it. 

“Dare!” Sokka calls, crossing his arms bravely over his chest as the neck of the bottle points to him. 

“I dare you,” Katara says, grinning. “To tell Zuko what you told me at my wedding reception.”

“Amateur,” Sokka scoffs. “I told you lots of things!” He turns to Zuko before Katara can clarify, and says, “I told Katara that she looked like our mom and was beautiful.” He turns back to Katara and sticks out his tongue. 

“And that you wish you could have babies,” Katara says. “You got _really drunk_ and told me you were jealous that I was gonna have TONS of babies, and that you wished Zuko coul—” 

“THAT’S NOT HOW THIS GAME WORKS,” Sokka shouts, diving for her and pressing a palm against her mouth to muffle her words. His face is deeply red and Toph’s laughing like a banshee. 

Zuko’s not. He’s looking at Sokka critically, the mouth of the bottle pressed against his bottom lip.

“His _heart,”_ Toph wheezes. She doesn’t specify further.

“You want kids?” Zuko asks him. He’s completely ignoring Toph and Katara, singularly focused on Sokka. 

“WOW, LOOK AT THAT, IT’S MY TURN,” Sokka says, dropping Katara to lunge at the discarded bottle. Toph is, as usual, the best person in the room because she replaces Zuko’s empty bottle with a full, more potent one as Sokka spins. 

“Ugh,” Katara says. “Truth.” 

“Chicken-goat!” Sokka says. 

“I used my dare to make you tell the truth,” Katara points out. “We’re not kids, we can’t go streaking around the block anymore.”

“What,” Sokka says, scrunching his face up as he thinks. “Is the most juvenile prank you’ve pulled in the last year? Completely irredeemable. And do _not—”_

“I don’t,” she starts to say, and then stops. 

“DO NOT EVEN LIE TO ME KATARA, YOU HAVE PULLED FIVE ON ME THIS MONTH ALONE,” Sokka yells.

“I SOAKED MASTER PAKKU’S LOINCLOTH IN POISON-GRASS WATER!” She yells back. 

“Gods,” Zuko says, drunkleny. “It’s almost like they’re related.”

“No wonder you wanna fuck both of them,” Toph agrees. “They’re identical.”

“Says _you,”_ Zuko says.

“Yes,” Toph agrees, “Says I.” 

“I forgot about that!” Katara’s saying, laughing so hard that she has to lean against Toph. “I--ha--I moved Sokka’s igloo--” she cracks up again, choking, and can’t get the words out.

“You,” Sokka says, face red, shoulders shaking. “An inch! Every day! For an _entire—”_

“Winter! And you didn’t— you didn’t _notice,_ ” Katara gasps out. “You thought you were--!” She breaks down again, Toph slapping her back as she starts to cough. 

“What Katara? He thought what? C’mon, give it to us,” Toph encourages. 

“He thought he was getting taller,” Katara says, tears streaming down her face. 

“Shorter?” Zuko asks.

 _“Taller,”_ Katara says again.

“You spin that bottle and dare or truth someone like a MAN, Katara!” Sokka says, face hidden in his hands. “Like a man who _wet the be—”_

“I’m spinning! I’m spinning!” 

“DARE,” Toph bellows, stopping the bottle with her foot so that it lands on her. 

Katara rubs at her face. “Uh. I dare you to… to…” she looks around the apartment for inspiration. 

“GO STREAKING? OH, KATARA, YOU CHILD!” Toph is still bellowing, ripping at her shirt. 

“Kiss Zuko!” Katara yells desperately as Toph starts on her pants.

“Really?” Zuko asks, making a face. “No offense.”

“What do you mean, _no offense_ ,” Toph snaps, successfully distracted in her inebriated state. “You should be chomping at the bit for some of this!”

“It’s just,” Zuko says, and scratches the back of his neck. “You’re a girl?”

“Katara’s a girl!” Toph says.

“Katara’s—” Zuko flushes.

“NO,” Sokka says, “DO NOT TELL ME WHY YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO MY SISTER.” 

“Oh, _that_ kinda girl,” Toph says, and winks. She rips the sleeves off her shirt, and flexes. “I can be _that_ kinda girl for you, sugartits. I’ll make it good.”

“No,” Zuko says weakly, and Toph makes a fist. 

“Shhh, sweet thang,” Toph says, and crawls over because it’s faster and more stable than walking at this point.

“I wasn’t dared into this,” Zuko says, and scrabbles back a little, for dramatic effect.

“I volunteer!” Sokka shoots his hand up. 

“This is a punishment for you,” Katara says. Sokka puts his hand back down.

“Oh, in that case,” Zuko says, and leans into Toph’s hands where they grab at his waist.

Toph, true to her word, makes it good for him. The good for him is mostly in the way Sokka’s finding it hot. The bad for him is every other extremely wet second. He’s comforted by the knowledge that she’s not putting her tongue there because she wants to, and that her hands are rock steady on his shirt. When she kisses Sokka, or even Katara, she does it differently.

It’s definitely less… pulling on their bottom lips with her teeth, stretching it out between them before it slips away. That kind of hurts, which is almost something, but then its done, and Zuko’s just made a dumb little noise for no reason. 

“Hnng,” Sokka says. “Not a punishment.” 

Okay, maybe one reason.

“Mmmm,” Katara agrees, looking spooked. “They’re very--”

“Hot?” Sokka asks. “They’re hot, let’s, let’s do something else, play-- hey! I hear music! Outside! With people!” 

Two reasons, apparently.

“I dunno,” Toph says, and leers at Zuko. He leans into her embrace, wrapping his fingers around her bare biceps. “I think I should stay here with Zuko.”

“Toph,” Sokka whines, “Don’t be mean to me!”

“Ms Beifong, I never,” Zuko says airily, and flutters his lashes. “I never had a gentleman talk to me like _that_ before.”

“I won’t just be talking, _darlin’,”_ Toph growls, and in an impressive series of coordinated movements for someone who’s been drinking what she has, manages to stand and drag Zuko into a bridal carry. 

She’s so much shorter than him that his feet are almost touching the ground.

“Ms Bei _fong!”_ Zuko cries rapturously and throws his arms around her neck.

“SUFFERING,” Sokka yells, wobbling to his feet.

“Let’s go piss on Aang’s statue,” Toph says, setting Zuko down.

“Sounds reasonable,” Zuko says.

“Do not— _piss_ on my husband’s— I am not supporting that!” Katara says. “Do you know the sort of trouble you could get in? You’re recognizable! People depam--depern---rely on you!”

“Let’s go piss on Aang,” Sokka agrees. 

“ _Statue,”_ Zuko stresses. 

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Sokka says, and waves a hand. 

Katara throws herself onto Toph’s couch, dragging another bottle towards herself. “Bring me back dumplings. I am _not_ participating in this!”

“Aang won’t press charges,” Toph says reassuringly.

“You know that we’re— it’s the statue, guys,” Zuko says, as Sokka and Toph stumble out the door. He follows them. “Guys. The _statue.”_

“Aang’s already pissed on it anyways,” Katara mutters after they leave. “First thing we did. Copycats.”

***

“Before we start,” Toph says, “I’ve got the biggest wang. So there’s no need to measure.” Toph stumbles and catches herself on the base of the statue. 

“Before we start,” Zuko interrupts. Toph waits, patiently, or perhaps fumbles with her belt, drunkenly. “I’d like to s-say a few words. Words in honor of, of Aang.”

“He pees in all four elements,” Sokka says. 

“HE PEES IN ALL FOUR ELEMENTS!” Zuko yells out at the harbor. “And he, he took the pee… RIGHT out of my dad and sister.”

“I don’t think that’s what he took out of them,” Toph says.

“Sokka, help me with my belt,” Zuko orders. 

“Public urination _only,_ fellas, if you— if you have sex, I will. I will bend Aang a wang almost as big as mine, and kill you with it.”

Sokka’s laughing as he cops a feel, hands down the back of Zuko’s pants in revenge. “You should do that anyways!” 

“Oma and Shu,” Toph says reverently, as she finally gets her pants down. “Okay, yeah, gimme a minute.”

“I’m, I’m too drunk to pee,” Zuko says, propped against the statue, aiming as well as he can.

“Have you tried drinking something?” Sokka asks.

“Yeah I drunk something,” Zuko says blearily.

“Hey!” Someone shouts, and Toph curses. 

“Guys, I gotta--gotta do the _dick_ ,” she insists, yanking up her pants. 

“I haven’t peed yet!” Zuko wails.

“Pee while I do the dick!” 

“NO ONE’S HERE!” Sokka yells at the stranger.

“Oh, wait,” Toph says, “I’m the smart one.” She stomps a foot and a wall juts up between them, blocking them off from the increasing volume of voices. 

“Oh, fuck,” Zuko sighs. 

“Are you pee shy?” Sokka asks, incredulously.

“She’s a lady,” Zuko mumbles. “Oh fuck. Fuck. Ow.” 

“Zuko, don’t hurt yourself,” Toph says. She squints. She’s never tried to bend outside of stone walls, but Aang’s statue is _huge_. She can feel the shape of it so easily. “Do you think he’d like nipples?”

A fist bangs on the stone wall. “OPEN UP. POLICE.”

“Yeah, give him six,” Zuko slurs, 

“Four,” Sokka says. “Cuz he’s the— the Avatar.”

“ONE NIPPLE TO UNITE,” Zuko hiccups. 

“I’m gonna,” Toph says, and widens her stance. “I’m gonna give him _four dicks._ ”

“You’re a fucking genius,” Zuko says.

Toph’s wall comes down. They’re rushed by the police force, one of which immediately recognizes Zuko.

“HE DESERVES HIS NIPPLES!” Sokka yells as he’s tackled.

“I’ve been kidnapped,” Zuko says, and passes out. 

“I’ve got information on the cartels in exchange for leniency,” Toph says.

***

“Your bail’s been posted,” Zuko says apologetically from the other side of the iron bars. One’s missing, likely the source of the metal ball that Toph’s playing with between her palms. 

“This is neutral territory,” Sokka grumps. “How come you get special treatment?” He’s got deep bruises under his eyes and he lost his hair thong at some point, his hair tangled and flopped to one side. 

“Apparently someone saw you kidnapping me,” he tries. Toph snorts. 

“Ain’t nobody seen shit,” she says, and Zuko winces. 

“...I may have told them you kidnapped me in order to get out of the arrest,” Zuko admits. 

“Fucking Fire wealth privilege,” Sokka says, standing and stretching his sore muscles as the guard unlocks the door to their cell. Toph tosses him the iron ball. 

“You _did_ kidnap me,” Zuko says petulantly. “That did happen.”

“You _let it happen,”_ Sokka says. 

“Why’d they believe that you’d post our bail if you were our kidnap victim?” Toph asks. 

Zuko rubs at his face. “Uh. About that. I didn’t have any money, because I’m the Fire Lord and other people hold my money now, and so, uh…”

They follow him out to the lobby of the police station, all three squinting at the sunshine as it stabs through their hangovers.

“Guys!” Aang waves cheerfully. “I heard you christened the ole me!”

“Where’s my _kid,”_ Toph says.

“Katara’s watching them!” Aang says, bouncing on his heels. “She said, uh, to tell you… well, mean stuff.”

“Aang, buddy, please tell me you brought Appa,” Sokka moans, throwing an arm around his shoulder. Aang stumbles a little and takes Sokka’s weight. 

“Even better!” Aang says, and lets a backpack fall from his shoulder to his elbow. “I brought hiking boots!”

“What?” Zuko asks. “How is that better than a flying—”

“You guys went out and had fun _without me_ ,” Aang says, grinning. “We’re walking back to the top level! It’ll be a great time to catch up with my _friends._ ”

“Katara’s ruined you,” Sokka hisses. 

“Shoulda killed him when I had the chance,” Zuko moans.

“You never deserved four dicks,” Toph says, and spits at his feet.

“And after,” Aang says cheerfully, dumping boots out for each of them, including Toph, who doesn’t _wear shoes._ “We’re all going to have ice cream! Isn’t that nice? Say, buds, there’s actually this song I know about ice cream—”

“I’ll kill you,” Toph swears, hand over her heart. “I swear on your grave I’ll kill you—”

“It’s actually a funny story, I first heard it from Bumi.”

“Hey, Sokka?” Zuko says, over the sound of Toph’s increasingly fervent death threats and Aang’s old person story accompanied by awful singing.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t ever try to make me fucking relax again.”

Sokka throws an arm around Zuko’s shoulders, mostly because he can’t stand on his own and Aang already shoved him off. “You’ll be a gorgeous silver fox.” 

**Author's Note:**

> find ang3lba3 on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/cryingiscooltm)
> 
> We've started an 18+ Zukka Chaos discord! Click here [here](https://discord.gg/9qbzhcb) to join.


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